Almost there...

YAYY I HAVE GOOD NEWS!! I finished fixing the story for my two-page spread!!!!

I already edited it on canva into my spread, but I did not insert the pictures because I am still editing them. I want to talk to my group so we can finally make sure that we are all cohesive without issues. I also went ahead and got my Table of Contents done, without adding the pictures either. I have started working on editing my ads, so hopefully, those will be ready soon. Surprisingly, I changed my mind about having an ad for loose powder, I am truly convinced on doing a fashion ad, especially because I truly liked a lot of the pictures I took with my long blue dress.

For my story, I used these to help me out a bit:

Youtube Video from POPSUGAR Beauty

Blog about writing

That’s it for today, sorry it was short but the pictures of my progress will surely say much more.

REMEMBER: I added the page number just now, but I also have to add the pictures!

Talk to you soon!

-Tini

Plan B for Pictures

Hi, welcome back! It's been a while! This week was certainly hectic since it was my spring break and my friends had made plans almost every day, so it was tough trying to juggle all those plans plus all the homework I was given and my magazine. Thankfully, I have amazing friends that were willing to help me out with the magazine. On Wednesday, 5 of my friends came over and I was able to get 90% of my pictures done. Unfortunately, we were not able to go to the locations I had mentioned in a previous post because not only was there a time crunch but a couple of days before I was in Miami with my friends and it was insane. There were a lot of people, it would rain then stop, then rain, then stop. So, I told my friends that plan B was the park in my neighborhood. It had a gorgeous field with hills and trees and that is where we took the pictures!!! I still have to edit my pictures, which you will see in an upcoming post, but I was not able to take all of them. I did finish all the pictures that I needed models for though, I just have to take the easier ones, like the makeup all laid out, etc. I was able to take some behind the scenes footage, and I wanted to include it here but let me tell you something, it was over 20 minutes worth of footage!! My friends and I went a little crazy and we just set our phones to take videos of me taking the pictures or my friends taking pictures of me, so I will later go through the footage and determine which parts to include because trust me all 10 minutes of it is not interesting. Other than that, it has been a good week for progress. I started my 2-page spread; it just needs some tweaks here and there, but it is coming along. I am hopeful that today and tomorrow I will at least have the pictures all done. I also started thinking about certain things I would like to include in my CCR, and some of it includes the BTS footage, so that is why I am also not including all of it.

Just so that today’s post is not THAT boring, I will include some pictures as a sneak peek, but remember, they are NOT edited yet.

PS: I have many shots and angles, but these are just to give you an idea

This one my friend took of me when we were in Miami and frankly, I love it. So I am hoping I find a way to interpret it in the magazine. 

Since my week was so busy, I had to take any chance I could. When I was at the Miami Open for my mom's birthday, I found some good backgrounds... but it was night time. I am hoping I can edit the light just right for these pictures, but they would be my last choice:

Talk to you soon

-Tini

Stressful Week Ahead

I have no way to start today’s blog because I am extremely stressed out and don’t know how or when I am going to take the pictures I need. I have tickets for the Miami Open tonight, ACT tutoring for 3 hours tomorrow, then too much AP Lang homework, plus my friend is visiting from Chicago! I am slowly working with my friends on figuring out a schedule but I can expect a very hectic spring break.

On another (good) note, I decided that one of the days I take pictures of my friends, I am going to try and take some that could work for a fashion ad. I want to try and have a fashion advertisement as a backup because I don’t know if the loose powder ad will actually come out as I want it to. I found a couple of pictures from an H&M ad that I really liked because they are dainty, simple, and clean. I want to try and replicate that but with the more colorful approach that will be all over my magazine. I also know that I want specifically my friend Anto and Vero to appear in a picture together because their contrasting features would draw a lot of attention; one is tall with brown straight hair, the other is short with blondish curly hair. I am supposed to meet with them on Wednesday and hope that I not only get the makeup pictures done but also some of the fashion ones as well.

These are the inspiration pictures for my backup fashion ad. I like them mostly because it is not busy and confusing, which is what my group and I are going for in our magazine.

I am sorry today’s post wasn’t so upbeat and bubbly but I am beyond stressed right now and cannot think straight. Taking the pictures is something I was looking forward to, but sadly I don’t knot if I will be able to make it all the way to Miami to take them. I’ll just have to see how the week goes and I’ll have to be spontaneous with the change of plans based on location.

Wish me luck! I need it!

-Tini

The Price is Right!

Welcome back! Today I don’t have that much new information, however, I already have an idea of the price for my magazine. I will obviously discuss it with my group members once they come back from their trip, but this is not the biggest decision to be made to the cover since a number can be erased and replaced. I did research based on the Cosmopolitan magazine since it is the most similar to ours in terms of their target audience. Most beauty magazines have a target audience of middle to high-class women ages 18-54. We decided to focus mainly on the younger realm of that audience, and so does Cosmo!!! They focus mainly on 18-34 years, so I figured basing it off of this would help out.

I went on to different websites to try and come up with a good price that is the same or similar to Cosmo’s.

This website sells cosmo for $13 a year for print and digital or $12 a year for just print and $12 a year for just digital. I thought this deal was more than a steal because you are paying $1 per issue!! I thought this was too good so I decided to go on to a couple of other websites more specific store websites that do not just focus on magazines. Amazon.com offers a one year supply of Cosmo for $16 or $1.33 per issue. This does seem reasonable since it is close to the one that Hearst offers, but I still decided to go to Barnes and Noble’s website which offered it for $19.99 per year or $1.67 per issue. If you would like to purchase the current issue only, it is $4.99.

My final conclusion is that for our online subscriptions or deliveries, we should stick with the first option I mentioned since, in my opinion, it is the most reliable since it is from Hearst, which is in charge for Cosmopolitan. As for the cover barcode for “in-store” magazines, $4.99 would be reasonable as well, although by looking at google images, some say “4.29” so that is definitely something my group and I have to discuss.

I hope you stick around for my next post!

-Tini

Picture Time!!

Hi everyone!! I am back with some updates about the pictures I took yesterday. So, on Wednesday night my ring light arrived and I decided to try it out and play around with it before taking pictures just so I can get the hang of it. Thursday afternoon/night I decided to begin taking some pictures that I would use for my ads and for my 2-page spread. The pictures I took were only of the products. I really want to start taking pictures of my friends, but they are not going to be here this weekend so that will have to wait until next week. I made my own white backdrop using white paper; originally I was going to use my walls, but they are not white so it wouldn’t have worked. Midway through the process, I realized that for the big eyeshadow palette I was going to need a bigger space to photograph it, so I used my shoe shelves, yes I said my shoe shelves. They are painted white so it worked perfectly as a backdrop. Unfortunately, I was home alone, or anyone in my house would be busy so I couldn’t ask anyone to take behind the scenes pictures of me. But luckily the ring light came with a phone tripod so I set it up and took videos, of which I took some screenshots to have as BTS pictures. The videos were about 3-5 minutes long, which is why I won’t insert them, but I took screenshots of it so that works too! I still haven’t narrowed down the pictures I will actually use and how I will edit them, but I looked through them and at least I know I got some good ones that could work. As for the rest of my weekend, I think I will focus on writing the story for my spread and already laying out the text for my cover and table of contents. Next week I will take the time to take pictures of my models!

Here are some BTS shots:

See you on my next post

-Tini

Troubles Lead to New Ideas

Hello blog readers!!! I am very ecstatic today because of the progress that was made yesterday in class. My group and I had some creative discussions regarding font and layout of our covers. We had previously decided to have a traditional beauty magazine, however, one of the challenges we would implement would be a hint of an indie magazine style. The subtle hint would be that we wanted to concentrate on having clean lines and simplicity when it comes to the style of the text. We will have colored titles, text, etc., but we did notice that beauty magazines, especially when they include collages, have a more eclectic layout. As a group, we decided that a cleaner layout, even if we decide to do collages might also help with the cohesion of our different issues that each one of us is doing.

Our amazing teacher Mrs.Stoklosa also helped us out in the process. We were having some issues with our masthead because none of the colors we wanted worked for all of our cover picture ideas. For Catalina’s design, the white masthead would not be easy to read in some areas of her picture, but for Malena and me, the color worked just fine. So we took it to Google and Mrs. Stoklosa to see if we could get some help. Originally, we had a white border around the magazine cover to implement the subtle clean lines. We ended up removing that because it would prevent us from having the masthead be large, and we obviously wanted a fairly large masthead. After removing that, we wanted to outline the white title because then it would pop out with any background, therefore working for any of our cover images. When we voiced this to our teacher, she helped us by telling us a trick she found online. By adding the same title, different color and bigger size behind the white masthead, BOOM you have a border!! When we tried it out we loved the look of it, but we stumbled across an even better style!!! I will insert pictures so you can easily see what I am describing, but basically, the masthead has a 3D kind of look to it. We layered the colored text and the white text to create it and as soon as we did that we all screeched with excitement. We also came across the idea of having the masthead behind the cover picture, but the problem with that is that even though many magazines do that, they are well-known magazines, so the audience automatically fills in the title when they read it. Since we ours is a new magazine, we opted out of that option because, as good as it would look, we would not only need professional editing software, but it is not the ideal start for a new magazine. The color in the back of the white can also be changed around with each issue. The cohesion is still present since the main part of the masthead will be white for all of our covers, but the color can be the element that matches each season or issue.

Before you scroll down to see my comparisons/layouts, I have to clarify that the picture IS NOT GOING TO BE MY COVER PICTURE!!! It is a picture I took back in January, but I used it because I am planning on having a green background and this picture was perfect to visualize that. As for the font, WE ARE NOT DECIDED YET, THIS MAY NOT BE THE FINAL FONT, it is an example.

As you can see, the white border just makes everything appear small, it cuts off elements in the picture, and it also leaves little space to move around cover lines and the masthead.

The layout without the border is bigger and it maintains the element of clean lines and a structured layout. This cover also includes the masthead style I described previously in the post. The bottom left corner is left blank because the barcode would go there. We are still playing around with some barcode generator websites, but it doesn’t seem hard so I am sure we will have that done soon!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and I will talk to you tomorrow with some more details!!
-Tini

Updates!!

Hi!! So today’s blog post is going to be all over the place, are you surprised? I have gathered small details that I would want to add to my magazine such as new clothes I’d like to incorporate, new photo inspirations, and even a new location.

If you recall, on one of my previous posts I had posted examples of spring fashion trends for the upcoming 2019 spring season. One trend that I did not touch upon was polka dots, mainly because I am not completely convinced that polka dots are a pretty pattern. But, after doing some digging around in my closet, I found my homecoming dress from last year and let’s just say I got inspired. As you can see (from the pictures below), the dress is a two piece. The skirt portion is the only part that has polka dots, which will make it much easier to style with different colored tops. I mentioned I wanted to have some bigger images in my table of contents that focus on one model, sort of like a story about the model. I figured using that skirt would aid the glamorous aspects of the image, but still contribute to the spring trends.

Homecoming polka dot dress:

Another dress that could also work on highlighting the spring attributes of the magazine, is my long blue dress with a very delicate and dainty floral design. Floral is certainly common around springtime, it is one of those trends that acts as the “face” of the season. This dress, I imagine, can also be used for the fancier photos, or if I am feeling like doing an extra fashion ad, this would also be a great option. Like I mentioned in one of my posts, blue is making an appearance as one of the trendy colors for spring, and if you mix the floral in there, that just screams for a feature in a magazine.

Blue floral dress:

As I was checking my Instagram stories, I stumbled upon a picture someone had posted of JB&C Juice Bar and Cafe in Miami. I instantly fell in love with it because it was decorated with plants and neutral colored furniture. The plants allow for a touch of nature in an indoor space, and the neutral color palette would allow for the colors of the clothes to speak for themselves since there would be no distractions in the background. Another great aspect of this Cafe is that if I decide to go take pictures in the Miami Botanical Garden, which I probably will, I can shoot in both locations in just one day since they are both in Miami! My biggest concern was having to drive to various places that aren’t necessarily close to my house, but I will definitely take advantage of the locations I found in Miami.

JB&C Juice Bar and Cafe:

As for this upcoming week, this is what I have planned:

-Write my story for my 2-page spread

-Have my table of contents done (minus some pictures)

-Already have the pictures of the products done by the end of the week.

-Shoot the close-ups of the makeup this weekend.

-Start preparing an outline for my CCR.

For anything that involves pictures, I will just leave those spaces blank and then edit the pictures in whenever I have them done. Yesterday, I was helping my friend with his film opening, and my friend’s sister was there helping with the makeup. I proceeded to ask her if she would help me and she agreed. The benefit of this is that I won’t take ages doing various makeup looks myself, and I would just have her to do some of the girls' makeup as I take some pictures. I definitely plan to give her credit since she does have a makeup account on Instagram which is @parra_beauty.

Hopefully, throughout the week you will get to read about my progress and not me struggling even more!

-Tini

Declining Progress

Okay, so I am going to be honest and say I have no idea what to post about today because I have made no further progress. So I decided to go to my good friend Google and look up “Makeup Baking ads” just to get an idea of how to take pictures for my ad.

Obviously, the main focus would be packed, or should I day caked, powder on specific features. Baking not only keeps makeup on for a long time but it highlights certain features such as under the eyes, side of the nose, and under the cheekbones. In order to highlight the baking features and not take away from the main focus of the powder, I am going to put on very natural makeup on whichever model I choose to use for the ad. The makeup would most likely consist of naturally done brows, foundation, and concealer, neutral eyeshadow and mascara. Depending on the model, I may have to add on some individual lashes just to accentuate the eyes which draw attention to the powder under the eyes. As for the actual picture, it would obviously a close up but with a white background. For my makeup ads I don’t plan to have nature as the background.
Here are some examples:

For the eyeshadow palette ad, the main picture would undoubtedly be the model’s eye which will have a dramatic makeup look. I don’t have the look decided yet but on previous posts, I posted the inspiration.

For both ads, I will take intricate pictures of the products (like I mentioned on previous posts with the lightbox). I still to practice around with the aesthetically pleasing placement of the products for the ads, but I will do that once I have the lightbox situation decided.
Here are some examples for the eyeshadow ad:

I’m sorry that this wasn’t very exciting but my progress went from thriving to declining.

Wish me luck

-Tini

Progress on Location

Hi, I’m glad you made it back!! For today’s post I’m going to talk a little bit about some of the places I found that I will consider as locations for the pictures. Like I repeat in every post, I want NATURE and FLOWERS. I simply looked up on Google “Tops Spots to See Spring Flowers in South Florida” and I went on CBS Miami and read a little bit about each place they offered. There was one place on their website that I adored, “Bonnet House Museum and Gardens”. There is an entrance fee of $16 for students and then an additional discount of $3 for Broward County residents. There is even an option for $10 to only go to the gardens, and not inside the mansion. I am highly considering this option because I don’t necessarily mind paying because that just means the place is very well taken care of, including the plants. The $10 option is the most considerable one since I have no interest in shooting pictures or touring that mansion.

Bonnet House:

Another great spot I found (not on the CBS website) was Miami Beach Botanical Garden. That area not only has beautiful plants, but there are also some architectural pieces, such as intricate benches, that I think would make the perfect place to have my model pose. The benefit with this choice is that it is free!! Can you tell I like when things are free?

Miami Beach Botanical Garden:

Some other random places I think can be pretty and go on theme with spring and spring break are:

Sunny Isles Pier:

South Pointe Park:

The Rocks in Miami Beach:

Versace Mansion (outside because they don’t allow people in without reservation:

Citations:

Top Spots To See Spring Flowers In South Florida. (2016, April 09). Retrieved from https://miami.cbslocal.com/top-lists/top-spots-to-see-spring-flowers-in-south-florida/

Hours & Admission. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mbgarden.org/visit/hours

Hours and Admission. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bonnethouse.org/hours-admission/

Best Photography Spots Miami Florida Has For You To Explore. (2019, February 23). Retrieved from https://blog.edinchavez.com/best-photography-spots-miami/#.XIxdFC2ZN0s

More Group Meetings!

Today we had another successful group meeting and I am relieved about some of the opinions my group had today. If you haven’t read my post about the previous group meeting, I’ll tell you the most important thing: my teacher assigns groups composed of people from different groups, so we are not with our own group members. That way we share skills, tips, and opinions with people who will have an outside perspective on our project. Last time I was the only one working on a magazine but today another one of my group members was working on a magazine as well, which was helpful when we talked about editing pictures, and our spreads. To begin the meeting, we decided to make a Google doc in which we each linked our blog and wrote down notes and advise under the member’s name. As I explained my progress, I voiced how my group and I were struggling on still finalizing a name and also how I am having some issues finding shooting locations for my pictures. The members loved the name Malena and Catalina (my project group members) came up with: “The Fit”. As soon as I said the name, my group for today was very ecstatic and they told me how they like that it is trendy but also simple and abrupt. I agreed with them, but I told them how my only concern is that our target audience includes 18-54-year-old women and only the younger ages within that range use “fit” instead of an outfit. My group followed to tell me that maybe that should be our challenge for our genre. I was quite confused at first because I didn’t understand what the challenge was. The explanation was straightforward: focusing on a younger audience. I am not going to lie, I was extremely skeptical of this at first because the age is part of the T.A. but then again, I do not have to create a completely new age demographic, I can just concentrate on attracting certain part of that range. I did text Malena and Catalina to tell them everything I just explained and they agreed on “The Fit” being the title and also at least considering the age challenge regarding the genre.

Once I that issue was addressed, the locations came next. The group members asked me what backgrounds I was thinking for my pictures and I constantly told them-nature, nature, flowers, FLOWERS! Matthew did suggest “Sweetfield Farm” which has sunflowers and tall grass but when I searched up the address there was a slight issue… it is 4 hours away. So the next step for me is to research locations NOT 4 HOURS AWAY that I can take the pictures. I am planning on taking all the pictures during my spring break because that is when all my friends can help me by being my models! For the ads, however, I am going to ask my interior design teacher if Malena, Catalina and I can use the lightbox we have in our studio. I decided to not buy my own because the one we have in the studio is more professional than anything I would’ve considered buying. Hopefully, she says yes, but I am not too worried about it going wrong because we wouldn’t ask to take the lightbox home, just to stay after school to take the pictures. Matthew also recommended “Light Box CC” as editing software. Even though it is expensive, they have a month free trial which I will definitely take full advantage of.

Before I leave, I want to share some inspirations for the vibe of the background I am looking for.

These pictures were taken last year in my neighborhood. I do not want a fence and a sidewalk in the background (duh) but I do want bright green grass and tall bushes and trees. This is also a good example as to how the colors blue and green both stand out because they counteract each other.

Credit to Manuela Gonzales (mgfilms) for taking these pictures!!

These photos were taken in January 2019 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Malena and Catalina are extremely lucky since they will be going there during spring break, and I have told them about this specific place, Rosedal de Palermo so they can take the opportunity. I am really upset I won’t be able to be there because this place is filled with beautiful flowers and amazing backgrounds.

This is the point in which I leave, but don’t worry I will be back with hopefully some locations!

-Tini